# Element X

18 Hacker News commenters recommended Element X and 25 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free Matrix chat app for iOS and Android that many find much improved, with a simpler interface and reliable encryption. Critics say it still lacks features from the older Element apps.

## Why people recommend it

- Much improved over the past year (4 comments): "Both Matrix the protocol and implementations like Element X have improved immeasurably over the last year or so." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46902391)) "Element X has finally gotten better over the past year." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46712615)) "Element X has improved loads over the years" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47035418))
- Simpler, better-looking interface (2 comments): "Element X does honestly look a lot better. But it's been mobile-only for years." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46902692)) "Element X (their beta mobile app) has a greatly simplified interface" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45988928))
- Strong encryption, on par with Signal (2 comments): "Encryption these days (in Element Web/Desktop and Element X at least) should be pretty robust" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46416235)) "it's objectively at least as good as WhatsApp/Signal/iMessage" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46743102))
- Video calls work well (2 comments): "Element X does video calls fine. It's been ages since it was the messy beta you describe it as." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49133708)) "Video calls, chat etc over Matrix" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48669142))

## What people warn about

- Missing features from old Element (4 comments): "It is really annoying that Element X is missing so many things Element had" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49131252)) "my issues with element x are with the client itself, mostly missing features and bad UX" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45996438)) "feature parity with the old apps and parity with the web experience was a hard blocker" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46916300))
- Buggy, alpha-quality, messy (3 comments): "It currently feels like an alpha-quality release: buggy and lots of missing features." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46110250)) "the Element X client that was advertised as Matrix 2.0 client and that did not work" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46119327)) "the new 'element x' is a bit of a mess and loses the background sync feature" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45988561))
- Mobile-first, weak on desktop (2 comments): "Element X does honestly look a lot better. But it's been mobile-only for years." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46902692)) "Element X requires sliding sync and Element X cannot be installed on macOS if you have System Integrity turned off" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49131547))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Facebook Messenger](https://hackerapproved.com/p/facebook-messenger.md): 36 recommend
- [Pidgin](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pidgin.md): 30 recommend
- [Beeper](https://hackerapproved.com/p/beeper.md): 29 recommend
- [Dino XMPP client](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dino.md): 21 recommend
- [Teams for Linux](https://hackerapproved.com/p/unofficial-microsoft-teams-client-for-linux.md): 16 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Element X", https://hackerapproved.com/p/element-x/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).